April 1 - International Day of Birds
Every year on April 1, the oldest international environmental holiday on our planet - International Day of Birds - is celebrated in many countries of the world. Its purpose is to preserve the species diversity and number of birds.
It is believed that International Day of Birds originated in Pennsylvania (USA) in 1894. Soon, the festival, which gained popularity thanks to the media, began to be massively held in all states, then came to Europe, and is currently being held as part of the UNESCO Biological Program “Man and the Biosphere” in many countries of the world.
The idea of holding Day of Birds found support in Russia. In our country, bird protection was organized during the time of Tsarist Russia, and by the beginning of the 20th century, several dozen organizations were already engaged in this matter. Among them are the ornithological committee at the Russian Society for the Acclimatization of Animals and Plants, the Permanent Environmental Commission at the Russian Geographical Society, and the Russian Society for the Protection of Animals, founded in 1865. In the cities, children's organizations were opened - the so-called May Unions for the study and protection of birds. They were created on the basis of schools and brought together children aged nine to eleven years.
Members of the society fed birds and hung nests for them. After the revolution of 1917, the May unions ceased to exist, but the idea of bird protection was picked up by the youth organizations. In the summer of 1924, the first and only USSR All-Union Congress of Young Naturalists was held, at which the teacher of the Central Bio-station Nikolay Dergunov proposed the re-establishment of Bird Day. Since 1926, this date was celebrated in the USSR as an official holiday. In 1927, Bird Day was held in all areas of Moscow, about 5 thousand children took part in it. In 1928, the number of participants reached 65 thousand, they hung over 15 thousand birdhouses.
The World War II broke off the annual celebration of Bird Day, but in 1948 the movement revived. The holiday gained even greater scope, in 1953, five million schoolchildren were involved in it. But by the 60-70s of the XX century, the celebration of the Day of Birds again came to naught. The holiday was revived in 1999 - thanks to the Union of Bird Conservation of Russia, founded in 1993.
Ornithologists warn: if birds disappear, an ecological disaster will occur, and its consequences for humans can be unpredictable. In addition, birds are an important component of forest ecosystems and perform various functions in them. Birds are the first helpers in protecting the forest from pests, as well as excellent distributors of seeds of forest plants.